KUWAIT: National Mobile Telecommunications Company KSCP- NMTC (Ooredoo) yesterday announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2016:
Financial Highlights:
* Total customer base increased by 2.8 to 24.1 million at the close of Q1 2016, versus 23.5 million for the same period in 2015.
* Revenues for Q1 of 2016 stood at KD 175.3 million, compared with KWD 174.3 million for the same period in 2015, an increase of 0.6.
* EBITDA for Q1 2016 was KD 56.9 million, compared to EBITDA of KWD 57.4 million for the same period in 2015.
* The net profit attributable to NMTC in Q1 2016 was KWD 10.2 million compared with a Net Attributable Profit of KWD 2.2 million for the same period in 2015. The increase was supported by good performances in Algeria and the Maldives.
* The consolidated Earnings per Share was 20.4 fils, compared to 4.5 fils per share earned for the same period last year.
Sheikh Saud Bin Nasser Al-Thani, Chairman of Ooredoo Kuwait -(NMTC) commented: “Ooredoo has delivered a robust set of results for the first quarter of the year. Despite the challenges of the current economic climate, we maintained steady revenue and EBITDA, with EBITDA margin only slightly impacted, down 1. Significantly, net profit, at more than KD 10 million, performed strongly against net profit of KD 2.2 million for the first quarter of 2015.
“Ooredoo Kuwait delivered a strong performance for the quarter as the business continued to roll out the latest generation of high speed services, which drove revenues by 13 to KD 50 million. EBITDA grew significantly by 4.5 to KD 10.2 million.
“Ooredoo Algeria increased its customer base by over 4 to more than 13 million as the business maintained its first mover data advantage. In local currency terms revenue and EBITDA increased. Net Profit reached positive territory of KD 4.6 million.
“Ooredoo Tunisia’s results for the quarter were impacted by the ongoing challenging conditions of the economy as well as the business’ strategy to spend more on customer acquisition cost. Market leadership position was maintained.
“Both Wataniya Palestine and Ooredoo Maldives performed well in the period. Wataniya Palestine increased customers by nearly 13 and delivered net profit for the first time. Ooredoo Maldives had a strong quarter, delivering growth across the business which resulted in net profit for the period surging more than 100.
“Ooredoo continues to deliver world leading communications services to its customers. The attractiveness of our services, and the ability to communicate and access services by our consumers and business customers, continues to generate value for our shareholders.”
